Six Degrees
by AnneStan86
Summary: They say that there is only six degrees of separation.  Little did the Doctor know, he was about to find out just how true it was.


_**Six Degrees**_

_Disclaimer:_ I do not own any part of **Wizards of Waverly Place** or** Doctor Who**. I am merely using the two for inspiration.

_Summary:_ They say that there is only six degrees of separation. Little did the Doctor know, he was about to find out just how true it was.

**XXXX**

"_I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find it extremely comforting that we're so close. I also find it like Chinese water torture, that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the right connection... I am bound, you are bound, to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people."  
><em>-**Ouisa Kitteridge**, _Six Degrees of Separation _by John Guare

**XXXX**

He had never met her but she was familiar even from that first brief glance that preceded introductions. It was a glance that caused a tug at the pit of his stomach and had both of his hearts skipping just one extra beat. However, upon further inspection, which included an actual conversation, he was certain that she was not among the millions he had come across in his nine hundred plus years of living.

Still, he could not shake that sensation of familiarity that had taken hold the moment he laid eyes on the auburn-haired girl no older than seventeen.

He concluded that the girl had to have ties to him that even he was unaware of. This could be the only explanation as to why he felt a connection to her despite them not meeting before in his lifetime or hers. But whatever that connection may be remained a mystery and although he loved investigating and, eventually, solving a good mystery, the time for doing so at the moment was simply non-existent. For he had a TARDIS and two companions to take care of and unlike his curiosity, none were all that adept at waiting.

No, this was a puzzle that would have to be solved at a later date when there was more time to be given to do a thorough job. The mystery of the girl would have to wait but luckily for him, it did not seem as though she was going anywhere fast.

**XXXX**

"Tell me about the stars, Uncle Wilfred, about the planets and the man in the little blue box. Did Donna really travel the universe with him and shoot through time like a cannonball? Did she really save worlds that we have yet to hear of?"

The old man chuckled. "Yes, she really did all that. The man in the blue box, last of his kind, saw her brilliance and took her on an adventure. He showed her places and introduced her to people that you and I can only ever meet in our dreams. He is the most important man in the universe and just by being his companion, even for the short while that it lasted, she became the most important _woman_. For one brief, shining moment she was simply _extraordinary_. The Doctor told us that rainy night they returned that her name will be whispered across the galaxies for generations to come, songs will be written and the legend of the DoctorDonna will forever be told. But we must never speak of it when she's around, remember what will happen if we do?"

"Her memories of all that was and all that has been will return, destroying her from the inside-out with their intensity."

"Quite right, child," Wilfred confirmed. It still lingered; the fear of the possibility of someone saying or doing something and causing his granddaughter to remember. It ruled over them all even now, almost two years since last parting with the man known as The Doctor. "Why do you look so sad?"

"I just can't help thinking how unfair it is to do so much, see so much, be so important to so many and then have it all taken away so suddenly. How tragic it is to be forced to forget someone who impacted your life so greatly while the world around you still remembers. To go from living a life of extraordinary means and return to ordinary one you led before it all happened in a blink of an eye seems a bit of a crime. Do you think she ever has moments where she remembers she's forgotten something so vital? Do you think the visions of The Doctor and their time together skirt around the edges but she can never grasp them to bring them completely to the forefront of her mind?"

"I don't know, child, but it's doubtful." Wilfred will never admit it openly but he has often wondered the same, especially when he happens upon his granddaughter entertaining a faraway expression in her eyes. When he sees her gazing out a window at the night sky, he often wonders just what she is seeing before she turns away with a slight blush and no explanation for the thoughts running through her head.

And he worries.

**XXXX**

He could have sworn that he had set the TARDIS so only five minutes had passed since their initial encounter. But his calculations were off again and when he happens upon the familiar girl that is every bit a stranger, he slowly comes to the stark realization that it has been just over five years since their last meeting.

Gone are the bright clothes that had drawn his eye to her in the first place. The only flash of color besides her hair is the pale blue blouse tucked under a smart looking black blazer and matching skirt. She is paler than before, her skin appearing almost ghostlike in the twilight hour, as she leans against the brick wall behind the sandwich shop. It is the same position that he had found her in when their paths had crossed before.

He briefly wonders when she had picked up such a habit but decides not to ask as he watches her drop a smoldering butt and she crushes it with the heel of a boot. Her eyes are transfixed on him as he crosses the street to reach her, waiting calmly for the man who was there one minute and gone the next. It is when he is standing a foot in front of the girl who is no longer a girl that he realizes why familiarity had struck him like a blunt object.

It is her eyes. It is that expression of longing swirling with a good dose of abandonment and wishful thinking, the spark of ingenuity and brilliance that lurks just under the surface. Each one of his companions has had eyes like hers, eyes that drew him into their depths and bonded him to them before any words could actually be spoken. Amy had these eyes, as did Donna and Martha and Rose and all the others before them. He is weak to these eyes.

However, there is something else mixed in with the rest, something that he has recently seen in only one other person. It is something akin to knowledge, like she knows who he is and has known all along even before he had introduced himself that first time. This knowledge seems impossible for her to have as she has never journeyed with him through time and space, of this he is quite certain.

He finds it all disconcerting and just a bit frightening. So, instead of having a lengthy conversation with the girl…woman…like he had planned, he chooses to share small talk instead. And when she excuses herself to return to the bright interior of the shop, he lets her go with a mere goodbye before returning to the TARDIS and the couple inside.

His investigation would have to wait a little while longer.

**XXXX**

The Doctor's mystery woman returns to her apartment, two subways and three blocks from where he had found her. She slips off her boots and relocks the two deadbolts before carrying her mail and Chinese food to the flea market sofa in the corner, deciding to sift through the letters and bills over generous servings of sweet and sour chicken and egg rolls. It is her Wednesday night ritual, combining the day's mail with the rest of the week's, finishing it all in one go instead of six.

There are bills from her utilities company and student loan people, a credit card statement along with one from her bank. Weekly advertisements for things she does not need or want mix in from flyers from businesses she frequents. There is another rejection letter from another publishing house in which she had submitted her first manuscript and a box from family across the pond that she no longer remains in contact with.

She ignores the rest of her mail and her dinner as she opens the envelope in the box that has travelled three thousand miles from Chiswick. She rarely hears from that part of her family, not since Uncle Wilfred passed on eighteen months before, and she wonders what any of them would have to say to her. A yellow piece of paper, ripped from a yellow legal pad, drifts onto her lap and her cousin's sprawling handwriting meets her eyes.

_Harper,_

_Aunt Syl and I finally brought ourselves to clean out your great uncle's belongings. We found this in the back of his closet with a note attached addressed to you. Give us a ring to let us know you got it._

_I know it's hard not having Granddad here but we do hope you'll come see us this year. It's not like we don't have the room and I know the kids would like to see you. Just something to think about, you know?_

_Donna Temple-Noble_

She proceeds to open the smaller box enclosed and her breath hitches upon finding what had been left to her. A carving of a blue box made of wood and a diary, both given to her to keep Donna safe from finding what has been hidden for seven years, bequeathed to her as their guardian in Uncle Wilfred's passing. Clutching both firmly to her chest, she curls into a fetal position as snippets of memories of significant but true stories wash over her.

"_Tell me about the stars, Uncle Wilfred, about the planets and the man in the little blue box…"_

"_For one brief but shining moment, your cousin was known as DoctorDonna and they say she was a sight to behold."_

"_Did she really travel the universe with him and shoot through time like a cannonball?"_

"_She was going to be with him forever but as we both know and she never realized, forever doesn't exist."_

"_So he wiped her memories, all of them, just like that? Couldn't he have found another way?"_

"_But we must never speak of it when she's around, remember what will happen if we do?"_

"_Uncle Wilfred, I think Donna remembers. Not about the TARDIS, the Doctor or any of those other amazing things but I think she remembers that feeling of being extraordinary and I think she misses it. No, I know she does because she has the same look in her eyes that Alex did when she came back from vacation. To have so much power and then lose it so suddenly, even if you can never remember having it in the first place, it sticks to your soul."_

For the first time since losing the jovial old man who told stories best left forgotten and never berated her for her sometimes child-like and too colorful nature, Harper Finkle allows herself to cry.

**XXXX**

It is at a funeral that their paths cross for the third and final time. He still looks the same as he did when she was just seventeen and he had popped into her life seemingly out of nowhere. Forty-seven years have gone by since that night and she is more than certain that she looks every bit of her sixty-four years while he only appears younger. She supposes that is the true curse of being an all-knowing Time Lord.

If she had not had the feeling that he would appear after over fifty years of silence on his end, she would have skipped the event altogether. It was not as though this part of her family tree held any real special place in her heart and she could not claim that she had any particular bond with the woman being laid to rest. In fact, they were so distant of relatives that she actually felt more of an effect when her publisher passed on the previous year. But despite how little Donna Temple-Noble meant in the grand scheme of her life, Harper knew that she meant just as much to _him_.

And she knew that it was time for what had been buried to rise to the surface.

He was not there for the eulogy or the actual service. She did not expect him to be, after all. There would have been too many unknown faces asking too many unanswerable questions. Sean was never told the stories of his wife's marvelous accomplishments and it was hardly the thing to reveal to a man who was one step from Death's door himself. And how do you explain to children who have grown that their childhood fairytales were real? It was better for all that he had stayed away for that portion of the day since the only ones who had truly known his past with their beloved had gone decades since.

It is at the very end, when all the guests have gone and the casket has been lowered into the ground, when she nearly gives up all hope in seeing him and turns to leave as well, that she sees him. He is leaning against the trunk of a tree that has been gnarled with time, hands in pockets, crisp bow-tie in place, the blue box known as the TARDIS situated off to the side. _He is the epitome of outside looking in_, she thinks as she makes her way to him. The notion makes her want to cry while the funeral had failed to do so.

"I know who you are, Doctor," she blurts out, losing all eloquence she has gained from years of enduring maturity. She sounds as though she has transported to that adolescent ball of nerves she grew up from but she cares little. She has to get it all out before she turns tail and flees. "I've always known, even from that first time you approached me in the alley. You're different from the man he described but so very much the same that it was hard not to know."

"And how do you know so much?"

He is studying her, trying to assess whether she might be a threat. Harper almost chuckles at the possibility but manages to keep hold to her composure. "He told me you traveled the stars, floating through time and space without a home of your own. He used to tell me grand stories of fallen civilizations and universes saved by one man and his companion. These stories remained a secret between us and I've been guarding them since I was fifteen, never once uttering them after his passing on the off chance that _she_ may overhear."

"Who exactly are you? And who—"

She cuts him off. "My name is Harper Finkle. I write children's books about wizards. I had a great-uncle who went by the name of Wilfred Mott and at one time, I was related to DoctorDonna: the most important woman in the universe."

"Why didn't you ever say anything before?"

"At seventeen, I was dealing with wizards and zombies, angels and vampires, parents who never really cared to be a part of my life and the two family members who did lived too far away to make a difference. Uncle Wilfred was already worried enough about Donna as it was and the last thing I needed was for him to have a meltdown because you had managed to stumble into my life. When you showed up again, I had lost Uncle Wilfred and nothing seemed all that important anymore. Not even the curious man in the blue box," Harper explains. "You know that everything I know about you I learned from Uncle Wilfred. He knew that your name could never be spoken with Donna being the way she was but he thought that you deserved some type of legacy in our family anyway."

The corners of his mouth turn up affectionately at the memory of the old man he wished could have been his father at one point. However, the smile does not last long and his features become troubled once again. "Did she…did Donna have a good life? Was she happy?"

Oh, how she wishes she could assuage the guilt she knows he still feels at having to erase the memories of someone he held dear. But there are times that the truth serves to only bind you further to guilt and this is one of those. "I believe she was, overall. She never gave any indication otherwise. But there were times when she would get a sad look on her face or one of confusion when someone would make a comment. Aunt Syl and Uncle Wilfred always thought that she'd just snap out of it, I guess. She never really did."

They are silent and she watches him stare at the cemetery workers as they return the pile of dirt to the earth in which it came, forever covering the legend that lie in a wooden box. She wants to leave, wants to escape from this man who has brought both misery and enlightenment to her world. But she has one question to ask him, one question that has plagued her mind since the first time that Uncle Wilfred sat her down and told her the story of the marvelous blue box and the man inside of it. And she cannot let go without receiving an answer.

"Did you love her?" she blurts out.

His head whips away from the grave and onto her, his expression alarmed and startled and she is almost afraid that he will flee before she gets what she needs. "Excuse me?"

"Did you love her?" She speaks slower, more emphatically. "I've been wondering that most of my life. Because I know she loved you and it would be a shame, after everything, if you didn't love her just a little bit."

Harper watches his Adam's apple bob as he swallows, deliberating his reply. "I did."

Thos two words had the same connotation as two million. "I figured you did. But a part of me just had to make sure, you know?"

She knows that their time is drawing to a close when he nods his head and turns to go back to the TARDIS. He reaches the halfway point when Harper decides that there is one last thing he must know before the forever part ways. "She named her younger son John, not because of her dad like she let everyone believe. She told me once that it was because of a name she sometimes heard whispered through her dreams. You may have wiped her memories, Doctor, but you couldn't get rid of the traces you left in her soul."

Just before he closes the door of the TARDIS, she swears she can see a tear on his cheek.

**XXXX**

The universe worked in mysterious yet ironic ways. In meeting one random person out of billions, he had gained a connection to the one woman he had been forced to sever all ties to and the man who brought upon both his demise and his salvation. He had also uncovered the identity of one of his favorite authors who had been a mystery…even to him.

He picks up a copy of _DoctorDonna: an Adventurous Fairytale_ by HJ Darling and opens it to the last page.

_For one brief and shining moment, she was the most important woman in the universe and her brilliance was unsurpassed. The next, she was simply an office temp with a strange dose of amnesia. But her story was out there and her song was being sung. And you had to wonder if she ever really forgot those magnificent things when that particular look came into her eyes. _

_But I bet if you ever saw into her head, ever glimpsed the visions that crossed through her mind as she closed her eyes at night, you would know that nothing is ever really forgotten. And while there are many more adventures, many more places that I could share with you that the DoctorDonna witnessed, the time has come for me to say…._

_**THE END**_


End file.
